Malachi 3:2 (MSG)But who will be able to stand up to that coming? Who can survive his appearance? He'll be like white-hot fire from the smelter's furnace. He'll be like the strongest lye soap at the laundry.

Malachi 3:2 (NIRV)But who can live through the day when he comes? Who will be left standing when he appears? He will be like a fire that makes things pure. He will be like soap that makes things clean.

Malachi 3:2 (NLT)“But who will be able to endure it when he comes? Who will be able to stand and face him when he appears? For he will be like a blazing fire that refines metal, or like a strong soap that bleaches clothes.

Malachi 3:2 (WYC)and who shall be able to think (on) the day of his coming? and who shall stand to see him? For he shall be as fire welling together, and as the herb of fullers, either tuckers; (and then who shall be able to even think, let alone endure, on the day of his coming? and who shall be able to stand firm to see him? For he shall be like a fire welling together, or purging and refining, and like fuller's, or tucker's, soap;)

Commentaries For Malachi 3

The coming of Christ. (1-6) The Jews reproved for their corruptions. (7-12) God's care of his people; The distinction between the righteous and the wicked. (13-18)

Verses 1-6 The first words of this chapter seem an answer to the scoffers of those days. Here is a prophecy of the appearing of John the Baptist. He is Christ's harbinger. He shall prepare the way before him, by calling men to repentance. The Messiah had been long called, "He that should come," and now shortly he will come. He is the Messenger of the covenant. Those who seek Jesus, shall find pleasure in him, often when not looked for. The Lord Jesus, prepares the sinner's heart to be his temple, by the ministry of his word and the convictions of his Spirit, and he enters it as the Messenger of peace and consolation. No hypocrite or formalist can endure his doctrine, or stand before his tribunal. Christ came to distinguish men, to separate between the precious and the vile. He shall sit as a Refiner. Christ, by his gospel, shall purify and reform his church, and by his Spirit working with it, shall regenerate and cleanse souls. He will take away the dross found in them. He will separate their corruptions, which render their faculties worthless and useless. The believer needs not fear the fiery trial of afflictions and temptations, by which the Saviour refines his gold. He will take care it is not more intense or longer than is needful for his good; and this trial will end far otherwise than that of the wicked. Christ will, by interceding for them, make them accepted. Where no fear of God is, no good is to be expected. Evil pursues sinners. God is unchangeable. And though the sentence against evil works be not executed speedily, yet it will be executed; the Lord is as much an enemy to sin as ever. We may all apply this to ourselves. Because we have to do with a God that changes not, therefore it is that we are not consumed; because his compassions fail not.

Verses 7-12 The men of that generation turned away from God, they had not kept his ordinances. God gives them a gracious call. But they said, Wherein shall we return? God notices what returns our hearts make to the calls of his word. It shows great perverseness in sin, when men make afflictions excuses for sin, which are sent to part between them and their sins. Here is an earnest exhortation to reform. God must be served in the first place; and the interest of our souls ought to be preferred before that of our bodies. Let them trust God to provide for their comfort. God has blessings ready for us, but through the weakness of our faith and the narrowness of our desires, we have not room to receive them. He who makes trial will find nothing is lost by honouring the Lord with his substance.

Verses 13-18 Among the Jews at this time, some plainly discovered themselves to be children of the wicked one. The yoke of Christ is easy. But those who work wickedness, tempt God by presumptuous sins. Judge of things as they will appear when the doom of these proud sinners comes to be executed. Those that feared the Lord, spake kindly, for preserving and promoting mutual love, when sin thus abounded. They spake one to another, in the language of those that fear the Lord, and think on his name. As evil communications corrupt good minds and manners, so good communications confirm them. A book of remembrance was written before God. He will take care that his children perish not with those that believe not. They shall be vessels of mercy and honour, when the rest are made vessels of wrath and dishonour. The saints are God's jewels; they are dear to him. He will preserve them as his jewels, when the earth is burned up like dross. Those who now own God for theirs, he will then own for his. It is our duty to serve God with the disposition of children; and he will not have his children trained up in idleness; they must do him service from a principle of love. Even God's children stand in need of sparing mercy. All are righteous or wicked, such as serve God, or such as serve him not: all are going to heaven or to hell. We are often deceived in our opinions concerning both the one and the other; but at the bar of Christ, every man's character will be known. As to ourselves, we have need to think among which we shall have our lot; and, as to others, we must judge nothing before the time. But in the end all the world will confess that those alone were wise and happy, who served the Lord and trusted in Him.

Malachi 3:1-18 . MESSIAH'S COMING, PRECEDED BY HIS FORERUNNER, TO PUNISH THE GUILTY FOR VARIOUS SINS, AND TO REWARD THOSE WHO FEAR GOD.

1. Behold--Calling especial attention to the momentous truths which follow. Ye unbelievingly ask, Where is the God of judgment ( Malachi 2:7 )? "Behold," therefore, "I send," &c. Your unbelief will not prevent My keeping My covenant, and bringing to pass in due time that which ye say will never be fulfilled. I will send . . . he shall come--The Father sends the Son: the Son comes. Proving the distinctness of personality between the Father and the Son. my messenger--John the Baptist; as Matthew 3:3 , 11:10 , Mark 1:2Mark 1:3 , Luke 1:76 , 3:4 , Luke 7:26Luke 7:27 , John 1:23 , prove. This passage of Malachi evidently rests on that of Isaiah his predecessor ( Isaiah 40:3-5 ). Perhaps also, as HENGSTENBERG thinks, "messenger" includes the long line of prophets headed by Elijah (whence his name is put in Malachi 4:5 as a representative name), and terminating in John, the last and greatest of the prophets ( Matthew 11:9-11 ). John as the representative prophet (the forerunner of Messiah the representative God-man) gathered in himself all the scattered lineaments of previous prophecy (hence Christ terms him "much more than a prophet," Luke 7:26 ), reproducing all its awful and yet inspiriting utterances: his coarse garb, like that of the old prophets, being a visible exhortation to repentance; the wilderness in which he preached symbolizing the lifeless, barren state of the Jews at that time, politically and spiritually; his topics sin, repentance, and salvation, presenting for the last time the condensed epitome of all previous teachings of God by His prophets; so that he is called pre-eminently God's "messenger." Hence the oldest and true reading of Mark 1:2 is, "as it is written in Isaiah the prophet"; the difficulty of which is, How can the prophecy of Malachi be referred to Isaiah? The explanation is: the passage in Malachi rests on that in Isaiah 40:3 , and therefore the original source of the prophecy is referred to in order to mark this dependency and connection. the Lord--Ha-Adon in Hebrew. The article marks that it is JEHOVAH ( Exodus 23:17 , 34:23 ; compare Joshua 3:11Joshua 3:13 ). Compare Daniel 9:17 , where the Divine Son is meant by "for THE Lord's sake." God the speaker makes "the Lord," the "messenger of the covenant," one with Himself. "I will send . . . before Me," adding, "THE LORD . . . shall . . . come"; so that "the Lord" must be one with the "Me," that is, He must be GOD, "before" whom John was sent. As the divinity of the Son and His oneness with the Father are thus proved, so the distinctness of personality is proved by "I send" and He "shall come," as distinguished from one another. He also comes to the temple as "His temple": marking His divine lordship over it, as contrasted with all creatures, who are but "servants in" it ( Haggai 2:7 , Hebrews 3:2Hebrews 3:5Hebrews 3:6 ). whom ye seek . . . whom ye delight At His first coming they "sought" and "delighted in" the hope of a temporal Saviour: not in what He then was. In the case of those whom Malachi in his time addresses, "whom ye seek . . . delight in," is ironical. They unbelievingly asked, When will He come at last? Malachi 2:17 , "Where is the God of judgment" ( Isaiah 5:19 , Amos 5:18 , 2 Peter 3:32 Peter 3:4 )? In the case of the godly the desire for Messiah was sincere ( Luke 2:25Luke 2:28 ). He is called "Angel of God's presence" ( Isaiah 63:9 ), also Angel of Jehovah. Compare His appearances to Abraham ( Genesis 18:1Genesis 18:2Genesis 18:17Genesis 18:33 ), to Jacob ( Genesis 31:11 , Genesis 48:15Genesis 48:16 ), to Moses in the bush ( Exodus 3:2-6 ); He went before Israel as the Shekinah ( Exodus 14:19 ), and delivered the law at Sinai ( Acts 7:38 ). suddenly--This epithet marks the second coming, rather than the first; the earnest of that unexpected coming ( Luke 12:38-46Revelation 16:15 ) to judgment was given in the judicial expulsion of the money-changing profaners from the temple by Messiah ( Matthew 21:12Matthew 21:13 ), where also as here He calls the temple His temple. Also in the destruction of Jerusalem, most unexpected by the Jews, who to the last deceived themselves with the expectation that Messiah would suddenly appear as a temporal Saviour. Compare the use of "suddenly" in Numbers 12:4-10 , where He appeared in wrath. messenger of the covenant--namely, of the ancient covenant with Israel ( Isaiah 63:9 ) and Abraham, in which the promise to the Gentiles is ultimately included ( Galatians 4:16Galatians 4:17 ). The gospel at the first advent began with Israel, then embraced the Gentile world: so also it shall be at the second advent. All the manifestations of God in the Old Testament, the Shekinah and human appearances, were made in the person of the Divine Son ( Exodus 23:20Exodus 23:21 , Hebrews 11:26 , 12:26 ). He was the messenger of the old covenant, as well as of the new.

2. ( Malachi 4:1 , Revelation 6:16Revelation 6:17 ). The Messiah would come, not, as they expected, to flatter the theocratic nation's prejudices, but to subject their principles to the fiery test of His heart-searching truth ( Matthew 3:10-12 ), and to destroy Jerusalem and the theocracy after they had rejected Him. His mission is here regarded as a whole from the first to the second advent: the process of refining and separating the godly from the ungodly beginning during Christ's stay on earth, going on ever since, and about to continue till the final separation ( Matthew 25:31-46 ). The refining process, whereby a third of the Jews is refined as silver of its dross, while two-thirds perish, is described, Zechariah 13:8Zechariah 13:9 (compare Isaiah 1:25 ).

3. sit--The purifier sits before the crucible, fixing his eye on the metal, and taking care that the fire be not too hot, and keeping the metal in, only until he knows the dross to be completely removed by his seeing his own image reflected ( Romans 8:29 ) in the glowing mass. So the Lord in the case of His elect ( Job 23:10 , Psalms 66:10 , Proverbs 17:3 , Isaiah 48:10 , Hebrews 12:10 , 1 Peter 1:7 ). He will sit down to the work, not perfunctorily, but with patient love and unflinching justice. The Angel of the Covenant, as in leading His people out of Egypt by the pillar of cloud and fire, has an aspect of terror to His foes, of love to His friends. The same separating process goes on in the world as in each Christian. When the godly are completely separated from the ungodly, the world will end. When the dross is taken from the gold of the Christian, he will be for ever delivered from the furnace of trial. The purer the gold, the hotter the fire now; the whiter the garment, the harder the washing [MOORE]. purify . . . sons of Levi--of the sins specified above. The very Levites, the ministers of God, then needed cleansing, so universal was the depravity. that they may offer . . . in righteousness--as originally ( Malachi 2:6 ), not as latterly ( Malachi 1:7-14 ). So believers, the spiritual priesthood ( 1 Peter 2:5 ).

5. I . . . come near . . . to judgment--I whom ye challenged, saying, "Where is the God of judgment?" ( Malachi 2:17 ). I whom ye think far off, and to be slow in judgment, am "near," and will come as a "swift witness"; not only a judge, but also an eye-witness against sorcerers; for Mine eyes see every sin, though ye think I take no heed. Earthly judges need witnesses to enable them to decide aright: I alone need none ( Psalms 10:11 , 73:11 , 94:7 , &c.). sorcerers--a sin into which the Jews were led in connection with their foreign idolatrous wives. The Jews of Christ's time also practised sorcery ( Acts 8:9 , 13:6 , Galatians 5:20 ; JOSEPHUS [Antiquities, 20.6; Wars of the Jews, 2.12.23]). It shall be a characteristic of the last Antichristian confederacy, about to be consumed by the brightness of Christ's Coming ( Matthew 24:24 , 2 Thessalonians 2:9 , Revelation 13:13Revelation 13:14 , Revelation 16:13Revelation 16:14 ; also Revelation 9:21 , 18:23 , 21:8 , 22:15 ). Romanism has practised it; an order of exorcists exists in that Church. adulterers--( Malachi 2:15Malachi 2:16 ). fear not me--the source of all sins.

6. the Lord--Jehovah: a name implying His immutable faithfulness in fulfilling His promises: the covenant name of God to the Jews ( Exodus 6:3 ), called here "the sons of Jacob," in reference to God's covenant with that patriarch. I change not--Ye are mistaken in inferring that, because I have not yet executed judgment on the wicked, I am changed from what I once was, namely, a God of judgment. therefore ye . . . are not consumed--Ye yourselves being "not consumed," as ye have long ago deserved, are a signal proof of My unchangeableness. Romans 11:29 : compare the whole chapter, in which God's mercy in store for Israel is made wholly to flow from God's unchanging faithfulness to His own covenant of love. So here, as is implied by the phrase "sons of Jacob" ( Genesis 28:13 , 35:12 ). They are spared because I am JEHOVAH, and they sons of Jacob; while I spare them, I will also punish them; and while I punish them, I will not wholly consume them. The unchangeableness of God is the sheet-anchor of the Church. The perseverance of the saints is guaranteed, not by their unchangeable love to God, but by His unchangeable love to them, and His eternal purpose and promise in Christ Jesus [MOORE]. He upbraids their ingratitude that they turn His very long-suffering ( Lamentations 3:22 ) into a ground for skeptical denial of His coming as a Judge at all ( Psalms 50:1Psalms 50:3Psalms 50:4Psalms 50:21 , Ecclesiastes 8:11Ecclesiastes 8:12 , Isaiah 57:11 , Romans 2:4-10 ).

7-12. Reproof for the non-payment of tithes and offerings, which is the cause of their national calamities, and promise of prosperity on their paying them. from . . . days of your fathers--Ye live as your fathers did when they brought on themselves the Babylonian captivity, and ye wish to follow in their steps. This shows that nothing but God's unchanging long-suffering had prevented their being long ago "consumed" ( Malachi 3:6 ). Return unto me--in penitence. I will return unto you--in blessings. Wherein, &c.--( Malachi 3:16 ). The same insensibility to their guilt continues: they speak in the tone of injured innocence, as if God calumniated them.

8. rob--literally, "cover": hence, defraud. Do ye call defrauding God no sin to be "returned" from ( Malachi 3:7 )? Yet ye have done so to Me in respect to the tithes due to Me, namely, the tenth of all the remainder after the first-fruits were paid, which tenth was paid to the Levites for their support ( Leviticus 27:30-33 ): a tenth paid by the Levites to the priests ( Numbers 18:26-28 ): a second tenth paid by the people for the entertainment of the Levites, and their own families, at the tabernacle ( Deuteronomy 12:18 ): another tithe every third year for the poor, &c. ( Deuteronomy 14:28Deuteronomy 14:29 ). offerings--the first-fruits, not less than one-sixtieth part of the corn, wine, and oil ( Deuteronomy 18:4 , Nehemiah 13:10Nehemiah 13:12 ). The priests had this perquisite also, the tenth of the tithes which were the Levites perquisite. But they appropriated all the tithes, robbing the Levites of their due nine-tenths; as they did also, according to JOSEPHUS, before the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. Thus doubly God was defrauded, the priests not discharging aright their sacrificial duties, and robbing God of the services of the Levites, who were driven away by destitution [GROTIUS].

9. cursed--( Malachi 2:2 ). As ye despoil Me, so I despoil you, as I threatened I would, if ye continued to disregard Me. In trying to defraud God we only defraud ourselves. The eagle who robbed the altar set fire to her nest from the burning coal that adhered to the stolen flesh. So men who retain God's money in their treasuries will find it a losing possession. No man ever yet lost by serving God with a whole heart, nor gained by serving Him with a half one. We may compromise with conscience for half the price, but God will not endorse the compromise; and, like Ananias and Sapphira, we shall lose not only what we thought we had purchased so cheaply, but also the price we paid for it. If we would have God "open" His treasury, we must open ours. One cause of the barrenness of the Church is the parsimony of its members [MOORE].

10. ( Proverbs 3:9Proverbs 3:10 ). storehouse--( 2 Chronicles 31:11 , Margin; compare 1 Chronicles 26:20 , Nehemiah 10:38 , Nehemiah 13:5Nehemiah 13:12 ). prove me . . . herewith--with this; by doing so. Test Me whether I will keep My promise of blessing you, on condition of your doing your part ( 2 Chronicles 31:10 ). pour . . . out--literally, "empty out": image from a vessel completely emptied of its contents: no blessing being kept back. windows of heaven--( 2 Kings 2:7 ). that . . . not . . . room enough, &c.--literally, "even to not . . . sufficiency," that is, either, as English Version. Or, even so as that there should be "not merely" "sufficiency" but superabundance [JEROME, MAURER]. GESENIUS not so well translates, "Even to a failure of sufficiency," which in the case of God could never arise, and therefore means for ever, perpetually: so Psalms 72:5 , "as long as the sun and moon endure"; literally, "until a failure of the sun and moon," which is never to be; and therefore means, for ever.

(English Version, 'corrupt') the seed," but will rebuke every agency that could hurt it ( Amos 4:9 ).

13-18. He notices the complaint of the Jews that it is of no profit to serve Jehovah, for that the ungodly proud are happy; and declares He will soon bring the day when it shall be known that He puts an everlasting distinction between the godly and the ungodly. words . . . stout--Hebrew, "hard"; so "the hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him" ( Jude 1:15 ) [HENDERSON]. have we spoken--The Hebrew expresses at once their assiduity and habit of speaking against God [VATABLUS]. The niphal form of the verb implies that these things were said, not directly to God, but of God, to one another ( Ezekiel 33:20 ) [MOORE].

14. what profit . . . that we . . . kept, God. Job 21:14Job 21:15 , 22:17 describe a further stage of the same skeptical spirit, when the skeptic has actually ceased to keep God's service. Psalms 73:1-14 describes the temptation to a like feeling in the saint when seeing the really godly suffer and the ungodly prosper in worldly goods now. The Jews here mistake utterly the nature of God's service, converting it into a mercenary bargain; they attended to outward observances, not from love to God, but in the hope of being well paid for in outward prosperity; when this was withheld, they charged God with being unjust, forgetting alike that God requires very different motives from theirs to accompany outward observances, and that God rewards even the true worshipper not so much in this life, as in the life to come. his ordinance--literally, what He requires to be kept, "His observances." walked mournfully--in mournful garb, sackcloth and ashes, the emblems of penitence; they forget Isaiah 58:3-8 , where God, by showing what is true fasting, similarly rebukes those who then also said, Wherefore have we fasted and Thou seest not? &c. They mistook the outward show for real humiliation.

16. "Then," when the ungodly utter such blasphemies against God, the godly hold mutual converse, defending God's righteous dealings against those blasphemers ( Hebrews 3:13 ). The "often" of English Version is not in the Hebrew. There has been always in the darkest times a remnant that feared God ( 1 Kings 19:18 , Romans 11:4 ). feared the Lord--reverential and loving fear, not slavish terror. When the fire of religion burns low, true believers should draw the nearer together, to keep the holy flame alive. Coals separated soon go out. book of remembrance . . . for them--for their advantage, against the day when those found faithful among the faithless shall receive their final reward. The kings of Persia kept a record of those who had rendered services to the king, that they might be suitably rewarded ( Esther 6:1Esther 6:2 ; compare Esther 2:23 , Ezra 4:15 , Psalms 56:8 , Isaiah 65:6 , Daniel 7:10 , Revelation 20:12 ). CALVIN makes the fearers of God to be those awakened from among the ungodly mass (before described) to true repentance; the writing of the book thus will imply that some were reclaimable among the blasphemers, and that the godly should be assured that, though no hope appeared, there would be a door of penitence opened for them before God. But there is nothing in the context to support this view.

18. Then shall ye . . . discern--Then shall ye see the falseness of your calumny against God's government ( Malachi 3:15 ), that the "proud" and wicked prosper. Do not judge before the time till My work is complete. It is in part to test your disposition to trust in God in spite of perplexing appearances, and in order to make your service less mercenary, that the present blended state is allowed; but at last all ("ye," both godly and ungodly) shall see the eternal difference there really is "between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not" ( Psalms 58:11 ). return--Ye shall turn to a better state of mind on this point.